So a couple of these pieces have been getting a lot of attention on Etsy this week – I think thanks to the awesome new homepage feature which allows everyone a personalised homepage showing featured items that are relevant to them! Then I realised I hadnt actually made a blog post about these maps which I finished a few months ago.

South Bank Wall Hanging

I wanted to make something really amazing, without worrying about time constraints which is always a massive issue when selling hand stitched products. I want to make work that is affordable to everyone, but at the same time I have a massive compulsion to hand stitch everything! So I usually compromise by combining hand with machine stitching, painting, applique, or trying to make the pieces as simple as possible (that last one…. never happens!) But for once I just wanted to stitch some maps for the love of it, and so I made these wall hangings. They are a much higher-end product than I would normally spend time on but I just love how they turned out!

Having the embroidery section of my shop sell out completely the other week was a bit of a motivator to get this lot finally photographed and listed:

These maps are based on a reconstructed Victorian London map, and so show a lot of familiar streets with slightly less familiar landmarks. The original map is beautifully painted, so to try and emulate this I used watered down fabric paint to slightly tint the calico and give the maps an aged, faded look. Hopefully it works well!